Chuck Turner is a rare breed: One of the last independent bail bondsmen in Solano County. His business, Solano Bail Bonds, stands to come to a halt if the senate bill that Governor Jerry Brown signed last week, SB 10, comes to fruition next year.

The only thing standing between a business like Turner’s and the death of California’s money bail system is a petition that is going around to put the fate of the measure in the hands of the voters. Californians Against the Reckless Bail Scheme hope to gather 365,880 signatures within 90 days to put it on an upcoming ballot.

SB 10 was originally crafted to do away with the state’s money bail system, which opponents say is unfair to the poor– those with money for bail can be released from detention while those that can’t afford to post any remain in jail.

The bill was initially hailed by criminal justice reform advocates like public defenders and the ACLU, but at the last minute it was rewritten into something that was not only opposed by the bail industry but also people who promote bail reform. Opponents say that SB 10 will replace California’s money bail system with something much worse– greatly expanded preventative detention. Their fear is that far more people will be locked up before trial than ever before.

Jeffrey Clayton, executive director of the American Bail Coalition, opposes the bill, which he said was rewritten and passed so fast that no one had a chance to do anything about it before “special interests” got their hands on it. “Since there was no committee process, there was no way to know,” he said.

SB 10 has now made odd bedfellows of those who opposed the state’s money bail system and the bail industry, both of which do not support it.

But bondsman Turner stands to lose the most locally in the short run. “It’s going to put hundreds of thousands of people out of work,” he says frankly. He also argues against the idea that the bail system discriminates against the poor. “Poor people are my only customers,” he said.

Both Turner and Clayton would have liked to see a reorganization of the bail schedule instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. They both point to bail amounts for people accused of domestic violence; they used to be around $10,000 but now can be as high as $35,0000.

Others who oppose bail reform question whether or not “failure to appear” rates will skyrocket, but studies have shown that is not the case. In Washington D.C., for example, they do not have a money bail system. 90 percent of people show up for their court dates, and only 10 percent of people arrested are rearrested after release, according to the Washington Post.

Solano County Public Defender Lesli Caldwell did not respond to questions for comment for this story, but San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi wrote an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee decrying the bill. “SB 10 presumes that a person will be detained and requires that they prove why they should be released,” he wrote. “The bill allows prosecutors to rely on hearsay statements and police reports in deciding who should be detained, regardless of actual risk.”

To those that oppose this bill, it challenges the idea of innocent until proven guilty.

If nothing stands in the way of SB 10, it will go into effect in October of 2019. Until then, different organizations and forces will continue to battle it out in “court” of public opinion.